


I Came Here (so you'd come for me)

by Traxits



Category: DCU (Comics), Shazam (Comics)
Genre: Also seriously, BUT YOU CAN'T STOP ME, I'm probably a little broken here, It's a little more complicated than just romance, M/M, WHY IS THIS MY OTP?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 01:11:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6174202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Traxits/pseuds/Traxits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Billy gets hit by a magical attack, and Shazam has to break some rules to make sure he's okay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Came Here (so you'd come for me)

**Author's Note:**

> So... I'm a huge sucker for the whole magical being/their avatar thing. It was kind of inevitable that at some point I'd write this. That said, I really, _really_ love this piece. I just. It makes me so happy, and I'm so incredibly proud of it. I hope you enjoy it too!
> 
> Prompt 10: Breathe Again.

Magic's Champion had never known panic. Not this throat-closing and desperately clawing beast that raked gashes low in his belly. Then again, he'd never felt magic rip through him that way. It had attacked not him (of course not him, he _was_ magic; he was the Champion that guarded it, and all magic responded to him in some way) but the smaller mind within. It had attacked the boy who traded places with him. He felt, more than heard, Billy scream, and everything around him slowed to a crawl.

Not needing to breathe was nothing like being unable to, and he couldn't force his body to realize that he was fine. That they were fine, and the boy had survived (had to have), that they—

He lurched away from combat the minute he could, the minute he knew that Constantine and Zatanna had it, and for a heartbeat, he couldn't remember how to fly. Everything was black and white and gray and dead because he couldn't find, couldn't feel Billy anymore. He lurched forward, one step then another, and when Constantine reached out to him— "You okay, mate?"— Shazam remembered flight. He shot off before Constantine got the question all the way out.

Anywhere underground would do, and he almost fell into the Rock of Eternity, clutching at his head, gasping. His throat ached, his heart had stopped (it didn't have to beat, but it had forgotten how in the panic, in the all-consuming thought that he was alone, that he had lost everything and everyone and Billy was—)

He pushed himself up, stumbled past the echoes of the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man, and the minute he was in the heart of the Rock, he forced his lungs to work. Every muscle in his body fought him, struggling and desperate, and he reached for the magic that was never far, the magic that wrapped the Rock in an embrace it never wanted to loosen.

Coaxing it to him took more finesse than he had left, and Shazam struggled for a second before he broke, and he slammed a hand into the ground— it cracked under the force, shattered and cast stone and magic alike into the air— and hissed, "Please."

Please.

Please, let Billy—

The spell was older than time itself, had been written the moment humans had begun to interact, had understood that they were individual and many at once. Thoughts and words had magic after all, and it was all too easy to see Billy, crumpled and alone, in the same vast darkness that Shazam slept in every time Billy was out. Normally, the rich darkness was warm, welcoming. Healing, even, because all the atrocities of man could be pushed away, washed off in the purity of the quiet and the relief in knowing that until he was needed again, he could sleep.

But seeing Billy there, crumpled up, bloody, stole everything from him. The blackness smothered him, pressing down with a tangible weight he'd never noticed.

He wasn't supposed to be here with Billy, not while his physical body lay prone on the floor in the Rock of Eternity.

There would be repercussions for this. Ripples in magic across the world.

Nothing mattered more than the body Shazam gathered into his arms, and he leaned down to touch his forehead to Billy's, his eyes closing. So long as there had been magic, there had been Champions, but there had never been an avatar like Billy Batson. None of the others could compare, and while Shazam knew instinctively that he was reshaped each time a Champion was chosen, he recognized greatness. He recognized a pure soul when he saw one. He recognized that this was as strong as he'd ever be, because no other avatar could lend themselves to it the way Billy did.

"C'mon," he breathed softly, leaning back to look at him, one hand coming up to brush his fingers against Billy's cheek. "You're okay. I know it was scary, but you're okay."

Billy made a very faint noise, and Shazam's heart twisted in his chest, aching all over again.

"I can't lose you," he whispered. His eyes were hot enough that something wet had started to escape them, and he could never get used to the way his body tried to mimic his avatar's, could never get used to the way that he pretended, on so many levels, to be more human than he was. Tears were not something that the Champion of Magic ever had to contend with, and not for the first time, he wished Shazam— the real Shazam, the old Wizard who had safeguarded him for so long— was still there.

He'd know what to do, how to fix this, because so help him, but the Wisdom of Solomon was no replacement for experience, for the innate understanding of a frail body like this that other humans had.

But the Wizard was gone and Shazam had inherited his seat on the council. Billy had. He'd named the Champion for the Wizard who had guarded him, and Shazam had never felt the burden of that name like he did now.

"William," he said, and he shook the boy very gently, trying to coax another one of those faint noises, trying to get him to just open those eyes. To look at him.

So help him, but he wanted Billy to look at him, to see him like this and not just look through Shazam's eyes at a mirror.

"No," Billy protested, and his voice was so thin that it sounded like it might shatter if Shazam dared to draw breath. "Don't... Don't call me that."

Shazam gave him another small shake, and Billy cracked those blue eyes open. His brow furrowed, and his lips twisted into a frown as he looked up at Shazam. For a second, neither of them breathed, and then Billy reached up to brush his hand against Shazam's face, an exact mirror of Shazam's current position. Shazam's arm tightened around him, held him up a little better, and a grin touched his face as he turned into Billy's palm, hiding that smile. He closed his eyes, staying right there, holding him, feeling him. Then he pressed a slight kiss to Billy's palm.

Billy smiled faintly, looking up at him, and when Shazam met his eyes again, he asked lowly, "So is this... some kind of masturbation?"

Shazam couldn't stop the laugh that escaped him, and that only caused more tears as he shook his head, pulling Billy up enough to press his face into the crook of Billy's shoulder. "Maybe," he murmured, and Billy chuckled against him before he wrapped his arms around Shazam too.

"I don't think you're supposed to be in here," Billy murmured against his shoulder, and Shazam's eyes closed before he nodded his agreement. His arms tightened around Billy slightly.

"The Champion and the Avatar should not exist on the same plane," he said after a moment, and he felt Billy nod. But neither of them let go. He could feel the backlash in the magic starting, the shudder that always foretold something that he'd rather not happen, but they were in the Rock of Eternity, and it was a special place. Too many planes of existence converged at once there. The rules of magic were at their most fluid, their most forgiving. There was time enough for this, but only here.

Shazam slowly let Billy go, and Billy looked up at him, dragging in slow and deep breaths. Shazam could feel his own body starting to copy him, breathing in sync with him, even mirroring the very slight shivers that ran down Billy's spine. Shazam caught his hand and pulled it up, and he brushed his fingers against the sleeve of that sweater. He knew where the scars were starting under it, knew exactly where each one of them touched. Billy bit his bottom lip, then shivered again and pulled his hand back. He pushed himself up to his feet, shook out his arms, and nodded.

"I'm okay," he finally said. He watched as Shazam followed suit. "I'm... I'm okay. You can go back. Before the magic gets too mad."

Shazam reached out to brush messy black hair back from Billy's face, and he looked at him for another moment before he nodded. "Okay. I'll trade with you soon as I get back."

Billy caught the edge of Shazam's cape just as he turned, and Shazam turned to look back at him. The silence was oppressive, and how had Shazam never noticed that before? How many millennia had he spent right here, in this blackness, in this silence, and he'd never realized—

"Be careful," Billy said, and Shazam's heart wrenched in his chest. His lips parted to assure Billy he would be, that he'd never meant for this to happen, and Billy shook his head. It wasn't until he looked up at Shazam saw tears standing in his eyes. The same tears that had been in Shazam's only a few moments ago. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

Shazam wrapped back around him, holding him, stroking his hair. His eyes closed as he pressed his cheek against the top of Billy's head. "You're strong," he replied. "You're the strongest person I've ever known. You'd be fine. But I will be careful."

Before Billy could say anything else, before he could remind Shazam how very much he ached to see him and touch him and _hold_ him, reassure him, Shazam pulled away. He could feel the Rock of Eternity. He could feel the way it tugged on him, the way it called him back to the body he'd left there. One last look at Billy, and then Shazam let go of that plane.

He snapped back into his own body, the magic forcibly fixing what Shazam had broken, and he blew out a slow breath, his eyes opening to look across the shattered floor. The stone was cold, full of countless ages of stale air and no movement. The computer screens Billy had installed glinted in the light, and Shazam braced one hand against the floor. The cracked stone shifted slightly under his weight, but it didn't break further, and Shazam didn't stop until he was on his knees again. His cape pooled behind him, white and glistening and pristine.

He closed his eyes, drinking in the magic that wrapped around him, and he smoothed it over the floor under him, seaming the stones and fixing everything he'd broken in his haste. He didn't want Billy tripping or stumbling over it. He drew a few more breaths, his chest heaving, and finally, the sense of that tightness, that indescribable terror, started to fade. Shazam closed his eyes, his fingers trembling against the stone, and then he pushed himself up to his feet. He didn't shake, didn't stumble, but he leaned back against the nearest wall.

The room was nearly as cold as the blackness had been, and he ached in ways he hadn't known he could. He was never meant to share space with his avatar, never meant to touch them or speak to them. But Billy had been so limp, so—

He swallowed, and his eyes eased open to look across the room. Billy's touches were everywhere, same as the old Wizard's touch had been before him. If he concentrated, Shazam could see the lingering traces of magic, the countless places where everything had been rearranged or removed or added. Millenia. Countless years, and thinking about it too hard made the world spin. No, worse, it made the ache in his chest stronger, made him want to warp magic all over again. Doubtless, they'd be cleaning this mess up for long enough, wouldn't they?

But no, there was something new behind his hesitation to leave. Something he'd never experienced before. Something that left his skin crawling and his mouth dry. It was something the Courage of Achilles was meant to temper, but it was there nonetheless.

Shazam was afraid.

The darkness had been so oppressive, so thick and overwhelming. Used to, he'd simply have sank into it, returned home after his foray into the world through his avatar, but the thought of going back to it now, after having shared space with Billy...

He bit his bottom lip, and he shook his head. No. Courage wasn't about not being afraid. He knew that through the Wisdom of Solomon. Courage was about facing that fear anyway, doing it no matter how much the thought made his hand shake. And besides. He couldn't leave Billy there.

He bit his lip a little harder, just hard enough to crack the skin, and when he tasted the heavy iron of his own blood, he knew he had to do it. He looked up at the ceiling, spread his arms, and all that he could manage was a whisper, the barest hint of air behind the word.

 _Shazam_.

It was Billy who reached up to wipe the blood away.


End file.
